May 02, 2025 02:07 am (IST)

Make this your homepage

Foreign

Shashi Tharoor welcomes PM Modi in Kerala, takes dig at 'dysfunctional' Delhi airport over flight delays | Air India will see a $600 million loss with Pakistan banning its airspace after Pahalgam attack: Report | Don't demoralise our forces: Supreme Court rejects plea seeking judicial probe into Pahalgam terror attack | PM Modi inaugurates WAVES, says right time to 'Create In India, Create For The World' | Kolkata fire: Hotel owner and manager arrested after blaze kills 14 | Pahalgam terror attack: US appeals to India and Pakistan to de-escalate border tensions | Pahalgam fallout: Instagram accounts of Mahira Khan, Hania Aamir, other Pakistani actors blocked in India | India shuts airspace for all Pakistani flights days after Pahalgam massacre | Bangladesh Supreme Court stays HC order granting bail to Chinmoy Krishna Das in sedition case | After Pahalgam terror attack, India warns Pakistan over 'unprovoked firing' along LoC: Report

UN Photo

Somalia: UN calls for moratorium after execution of murderer

India Blooms News Service | | Apr 05, 2014, at 06:03 pm

#Somalia # United nations # Human rights # Kismayo # death penalty # moratorium

New York, Apr 5 (IBNS): The United Nations human rights office Friday voiced its concern at the "hasty" judicial process in the Somali town of Kismayo that led to the execution of man nine days after he allegedly murdered an elder, and called on authorities to impose a moratorium on the death penalty.

According to reports, more than 34 people have been executed in Somalia since January 2013. In the most recent case, a man in Kismayo was executed on Thursday after he was accused of killing an elder on 24 March.

“The man was found guilty last week – it is not clear by whom exactly, but possibly not even by a court,” said Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

“He was executed by firing squad in public on 3 April,” Colville added during a news conference in Geneva.

He noted that the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) had urged a stay of execution, including at the highest levels within the regional Interim Jubba Administration which appears to have been heavily involved in the sentencing and execution.

“Under international law, the death penalty should only be applied after the most rigorous judicial process,” stated Colville.

“OHCHR is concerned that the hasty judicial process in Kismayo – just nine days between the murder and the execution – meant that the suspect did not enjoy full fair trial guarantees, including the right to legal representation the right to appeal. Someone sentenced to death should also have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence.”

The Office called on the Somali authorities to place a moratorium on the death penalty, recalling that the country was one of the supporters of the 2012 General Assembly resolution urging Member States to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.

“The recent executions in Somalia therefore directly contravene Somalia’s commitments at the international level,” Colville said.

(Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. UN Photo)

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.

India
International

Related Images

In image Israeli strike in southern Gaza Dec 06, 2023, at 05:13 am

In Images: Uzbekistan presidential election Jul 10, 2023, at 07:08 pm

Xi Jinping, Putin in Russia Mar 22, 2023, at 08:26 pm